A face digital na Cultura do Cancelamento: um caso de (im)polidez linguística?

Abstract

The dynamism of networks, associated with language, allows for specific behaviors, such as conflict and verbal aggression, to be transposed into the online environment. Recently, cancel culture has taken over cyberspace. In this interaction, through a virtual tribunal, acts of verbal violence are directed by the online community towards public or private figures. The target is anyone who says or does something considered unacceptable, mainly from a social perspective (Ng, 2020). Thus, the aim of the attacks and insults is to punish, or "cancel," certain users, in an attempt to ostracize them from the virtual world. Considering the aforementioned, this research sought to investigate, using corpus linguistics analysis tools, the main linguistic features of (im)politeness in cancel culture language, specifically focusing on Instagram. The research was guided by the impoliteness theoretical framework (Culpeper, 1996, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2016). For this purpose, four Brazilian personalities who have experienced virtual cancelling were selected: Gabriela Pugliesi (fitness influencer), Lilia Schwarcz (anthropologist), Monark (youtuber), and Arthur do Val (former congressman). Corpora based on “cancelling” interactions directed towards these personalities were compiled. The methodology also included quantitative and qualitative methods. Data processing was conducted using the Sketch Engine software through three functions: (i) word frequency lists, (ii) keyword lists, and (iii) n-gram lists. Frequency lists revealed distinct characteristics of online language, such as the use of emojis which, in addition to representing the emotions of internet users or serving referential and phatic functions, reinforced impolite face-threatening acts (FTAs) that attack the targets' digital faces. The occurrence of the pronoun "you" in all cancelling cases indicated that internet language is dialogical and that interaction and cancel culture language are approaching face-to-face communication i.e., orality. Keywords showed the context of each cancelling case, as well as lexical items of face-threatening related to impoliteness, such as "shit" which was present in all cases. Furthermore, keyword analysis enabled the detection of n-grams, or lexical groupings, with an impolite tone, requiring a deeper analysis of the impoliteness dynamics in this context. Qualitative analysis indicated the use of superstrategies of impoliteness in the four cancelling cases. Conventionalized impoliteness formulae were also present in all cases, representing insults, criticisms, presuppositions, impositions/rejections, silencers, and negative expressions. The fluidity features of impoliteness strategies revealed that cancel culture language, often directed at both positive and negative faces of the target, is (a) shaped by socially unacceptable behavior, as judged by cyber-users, and (b) marked by emotions and impoliteness strategies, which are often overlapping and lacking in courtesy. It is observed, therefore, that impolite discourse, with a highly disqualifying feature in cancel culture, reinforces group identity and is the norm legitimized by cancelers, who are not concerned about preserving their faces in the online environment.